Nielsen to Acquire Arbitron for $1.26B: Hot Trends

Nielsen agrees to pay $1.26 billion to acquire radio ratings company Arbitron.

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Popular searches Tuesday on the Internet include Nielsen ( NLSN) after the television ratings company agreed to pay $1.26 billion to acquire radio ratings company Arbitron ( ARB).

The $48-per-share deal represents a 26% premium to Arbitron's closing price on Monday.

With Arbitron, Nielsen said it would expand its "Watch" measurement that weighs consumer ratings across multiple platforms to areas like streaming audio and media consumption away from consumers' homes.

The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies. Nielsen said the deal should add 13 cents a share to its adjusted profit a year upon completion.

Instagram is trending as the social photo sharing Web site announced changes to its terms and conditions.

Among the changes set to take place on Jan. 16, 2013, Instagram said it has the right to sell users' photographs without asking for permission or sharing revenue with users. Under the new policy, Instagram's owner, Facebook ( FB), claims it has the right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or organizations and users cannot opt out. The only way Instagram users can avoid having their photos subject to commercial use is to delete their accounts before the changes go into effect in January.

The changes have sparked an outpouring of anger online.

Facebook announced its plans to acquire Instagram in April, and ended up paying $715 million in cash and stock for the company. The two entities have said they will remain separate, but integrate their services more.

Toyota ( TM) is another popular search. Toyota must pay a record $17.4 million fine for failing to report defects and delaying a safety recall.

The fine is the highest fine allowed by law from the National Highway Traffic Administration and the largest single fine ever issued to a car company over safety defects. It is the fourth fine against Toyota in the past two years.

Toyota said it agreed to pay the fine but has not admitted to any wrongdoing. The company said it agreed to the settlement in order "to avoid a time-consuming dispute." It also said it plans to focus on strengthening its data collection and evaluation to ensure it takes action more quickly in the future.